<p>The National Spinal Cord Injury Statistical Center estimates there are 12,500 new cases of spinal cord injury (SCI) in the United States every year (www.nscisc.uab.edu, 2014) and vehicular crashes are the leading cause. Spinal injuries can have extensive long term consequences leading to widespread social and economic costs as well as the human cost of living with chronic, sometimes debilitating, pain (Côté et al. 1998, Côté et al. 2001, Daffner et al. 2003, Harrop et al. 2001, Sekhon et al. 2001). Within the military population, spinal injuries are a common result of repeated loading from high-speed planing watercraft (Bass et al. 2005, Gollwitzer et al. 1995, Schmidt et al. 2012), high performance aircraft (Coakwell et al. 2004, de Oliviera et al. 2005), and underbody blast exposure (Vasquez et al. 2011, Wilson 2006). Therefore, there is interest within the automotive, military, and clinical communities to understand the biomechanics the failure mechanics of the osteoligamentous structures in the spine.</p><p>Acoustic emissions have been shown to be produced during micro-cracking of cortical bone (Kohn 1995). However, there has been minimal work utilizing acoustic emission to detect cortical and trabecular bone damage. The research in this dissertation developed experimental and analytic methods of sensitively assessing when failure (both micro-cracks and more extensive failures) occurs in the cervical spine using acoustic emissions. </p><p>The acoustic emissions from cortical and trabecular bone failure were characterized using a Welch power spectrum density estimate and continuous wavelet transform. The power spectrum density results showed both cortical bone and trabecular bone failure produced wideband acoustic emission signals with spectral peaks between from 20 kHz to 1380 kHz and 24 kHz to 1382 kHz respectively. The continuous wavelet transform showed the spectral content begins with high frequency content followed quickly by low frequency content, but the low frequency lasts for a longer time causing it to dominate the response in the Welch power spectrum density. The first frequency component in the continuous wavelet transform was used to characterize the signals and was found to form three distinct bands in the cortical bone tests (166 ± 52.6 kHz, 379 ± 37.2 kHz, and 668 ± 63.4 kHz) and one band in the trabecular bone tests (185 ± 37.9 kHz). Therefore, observing spectral content within these bands suggests failure of the respective bone.</p><p>This dissertation also uses continuous wavelet transform to identify failure in whole cervical spine compression tests. Whole cervical spines placed in a pre-flexed and pre-extended posture were compressed to induce failure while being monitored for acoustic emissions. Cortical bone failure was identified in the acoustic emissions when local maxima in the continuous wavelet transform fell within the spectral bands associated with cortical bone failure previously identified. The timing of these failures was matched to the force-displacement response to identify the initiation of failure and the major failure. Cortical bone failure was detected at 70-90% of the failure load suggesting that the failure occurs as an evolution from micro-cracks to the eventual major failure. Locating these micro-cracks before the major failure forms may be useful in the prediction of the location of failure.</p><p> This dissertation also presents a technique to calculate the AE source location for AEs generated from fracture. The primary obstacle for AE source localization in the spine is that the speed of sound is different in cortical bone (Prevrhal et al. 2001), trabecular bone (Cardoso et al. 2003), intervertebral disc (Pluijm et al. 2004), ligaments (Kijima et al. 2009), and also differs based on its direction of travel in cortical bone (Kann et al. 1993) and likely in the other materials. Any algorithm must account for these differences to obtain any useful level of accuracy. The algorithm presented in this dissertation is based on hyperbolic source location algorithms (De Ronde et al. 2007, O'Toole et al. 2012, Salinas et al. 2010) except that it iterates on the speed of sound over a specified range, and convergence is defined as when the solution change is minimized. This procedure calculated the AE source location with a mean error of 5.7 mm and a standard deviation of 3.8 mm.</p><p>The contributions and conclusions of this dissertation provide methodology and results to evaluate the failure mechanics in the spine. Although these procedures were developed for use in the spine, they are of great value to the biomechanics community because they are applicable to every body region. The recommendations presented will serve to better understand the failure mechanics of the human body and will likely lead to better defined and safer standards for protective equipment. It also provides data for the generation of finite element models that require failure criteria.</p> / Dissertation

This thesis examines the role of Acoustic Emission (AE) as a non-destructive testing technique for concrete structures. The work focuses on the development of experimental techniques and data analysis methods for the detection, location and assessment of AE from the failure of plain and reinforced concrete specimens. Four key topics are investigated:

Early warning of slope instability will enable evacuation of vulnerable people and timely repair and maintenance of critical infrastructure. However, currently available warning systems are too expensive for wide-scale use or have technical limitations. The acoustic emission (AE) monitoring approach using active waveguides (i.e. a steel tube with granular backfill surround installed in a borehole through a slope), in conjunction with the Slope ALARMS AE measurement system, has the potential to be an affordable early warning system for slope instability. However, the challenge has been to develop strategies to interpret and quantify deformation behaviour from measured AE. The development of an approach to quantify slope deformation behaviour from measured AE will enable the AE monitoring system to provide early warning of slope instability through detecting, quantifying and communicating accelerations in slope movement. Field monitoring and full-scale physical modelling have been conducted to characterise the AE response from the system to both reactivated slope movements and first-time slope failure. Definitive field evidence has been obtained showing AE monitoring can measure slope movements and generated AE rates are proportional to slope displacement rates, which was confirmed through comparisons with both conventional inclinometer and continuous ShapeAccelArray deformation measurements. A field monitoring case study demonstrated that the AE approach can detect very slow slope movements of 0.075 mm/day. In addition, the concept of retrofitting inclinometer casings with active waveguides to convert the manually read instrument to a real-time monitoring system has been demonstrated using a field trial. Dynamic strain-controlled shear tests on active waveguide physical models demonstrated that AE monitoring can be used to quantify slope displacement rates, continuously and in real-time, with accuracy to within an order of magnitude. Large-scale first-time slope failure experiments allowed the AE response to slope failure to be characterised. AE was detected after shear deformations of less than a millimetre in previously un-sheared material, and AE rates increased proportionally with displacement rates as failure occurred. The AE rate-displacement rate relationship can be approximated as linear up to 100 mm/hour and shear surface deformations less than 10-20 mm. At greater velocities and larger deformations the gradient of the relationship progressively increases and is best represented using a polynomial. This is because complex pressure distributions develop along the active waveguide analogous to a laterally loaded pile, and the confining pressures increase. Variables that influence the AE rate-displacement rate relationship have been quantified using physical model experiments and empirical relationships. A framework has been developed to allow AE rate-displacement rate calibration relationships to be determined for any AE system installation. This provides a universal method that can be used by practitioners when installing AE systems, to calibrate them to deliver alarm statuses/warning levels that are related to slope displacement rates. Use of this framework has been demonstrated using a case study example, and decision making protocols have been suggested that use trends in alarms with time to trigger decisions, which could be to send an engineer to inspect the slope, manage traffic, or evacuate people.

Automobile and aero industries have an increasing interestin materials with improved mechanical properties. However, manyof these new materials are classified as difficult-to-cut withconventional tools. It is obvious that tools, cutting processesand cutting models has to be devel-oped parallel to materialsscience. In this thesis rotary cutting tools are tested as analternative toexpensive diamond or cubic bore nitridetools. Metal matrix composites mostly consist of a light metalalloy (such as aluminium or titanium) reinforced with hard andabrasive ceramic parti-cles or fibres. On machining, thereinforcement results in a high rate of tool wear. This is themain problem for the machining of MMCs. Many factors affect thelife length of a tool, i.e. matrix alloy, type, size andfraction of the reinforcement, heat treatment, cuttingconditions and tool properties. In tests, the Al-SiC MMC formed a deformation layer duringmilling, probably affected by lack of cooling. The dominatingfactor for tool life was the cutting speed. Water jet or CO2cooling of turning did not provide dramatic increase in toollife. With PCD, cutting speeds up to 2000 m/min were usedwithout machining problems and BUE formation. Tool flank wearwas abrasive and crater wear created an "orange-peel type" wearsurface. PCD inserts did not show the typical increase in flankwear rate at the end of its lifetime. The use of self-propelled rotary tools seems to be apromising way to increase tool life. No BUE was formed on therotary tool at high cutting data. The measurements indicatethat the rotary tool creates twice as good surface as PCDtools. The longest tool life was gained with an inclinationangle of 10 degrees. Tool costs per component will beapproximately the same, but rotary cutting tool allows higherfeeds and therefore a higher production rate and thus a lowerproduction cost. The rotary cutting operation might have a potential toincrease productiv-ity in bar peeling. The lack of BUE withrotary cutting gives hope on higher tool life. The test resultsshow that tool wear was 27% lower with rotary cutting tools.Increase of cutting speed from 22 to 44 m/min did not affectcutting forces. This indicates that the cutting speed canincrease without significant change in tool wear rate. Issues related to rotary cutting like cutting models,cutting processes, standards, tools and models have beendiscussed. A tool wear model with kinetic energy has beendiscussed. KEYWORDS:Difficult-to-Cut material, Metal MatrixComposite (MMC), Machining, Machinability, Rotary Cutting Tool,Acoustic Emission / <p>QCR 20161026</p>

Flow over a rough surface is known to radiate sound as a dipole source that is directional. In order to better understand this source, measurements are being made in a wind tunnel using a microphone array. The measurements collected by a microphone array are beamformed to give a source image and can be deconvolved with an assumed point spread function in order to obtain the source levels. This thesis considers alternative analysis algorithms that can be used to analyze wind tunnel data. Only numerical examples of how these algorithms work will be presented and the analysis of real data will be considered in later studies. It will be shown how estimates can be made of the source directivity by comparing the measured data with a theoretical source model and minimizing the error between the model and the measurements. / by Gerard P. Kaufman. / Thesis (M.S.C.S.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2011. / Includes bibliography. / Electronic reproduction. Boca Raton, Fla., 2011. Mode of access: World Wide Web.

Refratários são materiais com microestrutura heterogênea constituída de uma fração grosseira, os agregados, e de uma fração mais fina, a matriz, em que ambas exercem papéis fundamentais nas propriedades dos refratários, sendo a resistência ao dano por choque térmico, uma das mais importantes. Para avaliar essa questão crítica dos refratários há necessidade de se conhecer bem seu comportamento à propagação de trinca, principalmente quando submetido a uma tensão. Porém, devido à complexidade da estrutura desses materiais, o comportamento das regiões à frente e atrás da ponta da trinca sempre foi muito discutido, só que essa discussão sempre fez uso de modelos e simulações computacionais, já que é prevista uma zona de processo, em que diferentes mecanismos podem absorver energia aumentando a resistência à propagação da trinca principal. Nesta tese foi proposto o estudo experimental do comportamento da propagação de trinca em refratários, visando entender os mecanismos de resistência à propagação de trinca e o caminho das trincas propagantes, utilizando o método da cunha para propagação estável da trinca, que é o mais adequado para essa classe de materiais. Para isso foram utilizados, dois refratários distintos: tijolo e concreto, ambos de alta alumina. No tijolo, para visualização do caminho da trinca propagante após o ensaio, o caminho da trinca foi infiltrado com cola instantânea para garantir a integridade da mesma, a fim que amostras pudessem ser preparadas para análise de imagens em microscópio eletrônico de varredura. Devido à dificuldade dessa preparação, e de só ser possível observar a trinca após a propagação, um microscópio digital passou a ser utilizado in loco ao ensaio. Esse estudo foi realizado com o concreto, sendo possível associar o comprimento da trinca com a curva carga-deslocamento. A fim de complementar o estudo do processo de fratura, a técnica de emissão acústica (EA) passou a ser utilizada nos ensaios de propagação de trinca, já que quando um material é submetido a uma carga e as trincas se desenvolvem, há liberação de energia de deformação do material, sendo possível capturar os dados de energia dos sinais gerados pela propagação. Sendo assim foi possível correlacionar resultados de energia de fratura, início e tamanho de trinca com as curvas carga-deslocamento, carga-tempo, e inclusive, com a contagem de sinais acumulada-tempo, que foi complementar na estimativa da zona de processo completa, ou seja, os fenômenos produzidos atingiram o estado estacionário. A região em que se encontra o final da zona de processo coincide com o fim do regime estacionário, que é onde a trinca atravessa o corpo de prova. Dessa forma, mostra-se com essa tese, que o corpo de prova utilizado para a propagação estável de trinca pelo método da cunha, nas dimensões atuais, são suficientes para o desenvolvimento de todos os mecanismos de resistência à propagação de trinca em refratários. / Refractories are materials with heterogeneous microstructure, consisting of a coarse fraction, aggregates, and a finer fraction, the matrix, in which both play key roles in the properties of the refractory, and the resistance to thermal shock damage, one of the most important. To examine this critical issue of the refractory is no need to be familiar with their behavior to crack propagation, especially when subjected to a stress. The behavior of the regions ahead of and behind the crack tip has been discussed exhaustively, because a process zone was envisaged in which different mechanisms could absorb energy, thus increasing the propagation resistance of the main crack. However, this discussion has always been based on the use of models and computer simulations. The thesis presented here proposes an experimental study of the behavior of crack propagation in refractories, aiming to understand the mechanisms of crack propagation resistance and the crack propagation path, using the wedge splitting method to achieve stable crack propagation. To this end, two different refractory materials were used: brick and concrete, both high alumina. Based on the stable crack propagation test by the wedge method, techniques were sought that would aid in the visualization of crack propagation. In brick, the crack path was infiltrated with instant glue and infiltrated samples were examined by scanning electron microscopy (SEM); however, in addition to proving laborious, the crack was only visible after its propagation. In the case of concrete, this study was performed in loco during the test, using a digital microscope in combination with the acoustic emission (AE) technique. AE is defined as the generation of stress waves stored energy is suddenly released from localized sources within a material subjected to external loads. By means of the fracture energy data and the AE signals, it was possible to observe the entire fracture process and to correlate the results of fracture energy and crack onset and size with the load-displacement and load-time curves, and even the count of signals accumulated over time. This information was complementary to estimate the complete process zone, i.e., the phenomena produced reached the steady state. This study demonstrated that the dimensions of the test specimen used for stable crack propagation by the wedge splitting method suffice for the development of all the mechanisms of crack propagation resistance in refractories.

It is widely acknowledged that bearing failures are the primary reason for breakdowns in rotating machinery. These failures are extremely costly, particularly in terms of lost production. Roller bearings are widely used in industrial machinery and need to be maintained in good condition to ensure the continuing efficiency, effectiveness, and profitability of the production process. The research presented here is an investigation of the use of acoustic emission (AE) to monitor bearing conditions at low speeds. Many machines, particularly large, expensive machines operate at speeds below 100 rpm, and such machines are important to the industry. However, the overwhelming proportion of studies have investigated the use of AE techniques for condition monitoring of higher-speed machines (typically several hundred rpm, or even higher). Few researchers have investigated the application of these techniques to low-speed machines ( < 100 rpm), This PhD addressed this omission and has established which, of the available, AE techniques are suitable for the detection of incipient faults and measurement of fault growth in low-speed bearings. The first objective of this research program was to assess the applicability of AE techniques to monitor low-speed bearings. It was found that the measured statistical parameters successfully monitored bearing conditions at low speeds (10-100 rpm). The second objective was to identify which commonly used statistical parameters derived from the AE signal (RMS, kurtosis, amplitude and counts) could identify the onset of a fault in either race. It was found that the change in AE amplitude and AE RMS could identify the presence of a small fault seeded into either the inner or the outer races. However, the severe attenuation of the signal from the inner race meant that, while AE amplitude and RMS could readily identify the incipient fault, kurtosis and the AE counts could not. Thus, more attention needs to be given to analysing the signal from the inner race. The third objective was to identify a measure that would assess the degree of severity of the fault. However, once the defect was established, it was found that of the parameters used only AE RMS was sensitive to defect size. The fourth objective was to assess whether the AE signal is able to detect defects located at either the centre or edge of the outer race of a bearing rotating at low speeds. It is found that all the measured AE parameters had higher values when the defect was seeded in the middle of the outer race, possibly due to the shorter path traversed by the signal between source and sensor which gave a lower attenuation than when the defect was on the edge of the outer race. Moreover, AE can detect the defect at both locations, which confirmed the applicability of the AE to monitor the defects at any location on the outer race.

Thesis (M.S.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Mechanical Engineering, 1981. / MICROFICHE COPY AVAILABLE IN ARCHIVES AND ENGINEERING. / Includes bibliographical references. / by David Matthew DeLonga; Ensign, USN. / M.S.

Atualmente, a maior parte das indústria de manufatura utiliza seus operadores de máquinas para fazer a verificação dimensional das peças usinada. Esses operadores geralmente escolhem algumas amostras aleatoriamente, num determinado período de tempo, para fazer a inspeção manual, ou utilizam dispositivos de medição automáticos no lote todo. Esses procedimentos podem implicar em perda de tempo, ou grandes investimentos, o que eleva os custos do produto final. Este trabalho propõe uma nova metodologia para a medição de peças em processo de retificação, utilizando uma máquina retificadora com funções inteligentes. As tecnologias de um encoder incremental óptico rotacional e de um chip contador são utilizadas para fazer o monitoramento da posição do cabeçote porta rebolo. Utilizando um sistema de cooordenadas baseado no Comando Numérico (CN) da máquina, associado a inspeção por Emissão Acústica (EA) pode-se monitorar a posição do rebolo do ponto de início ciclo de retificação até o início do contato com a peça. Os erros associados a deformação térmica da máquina e o desgaste do rebolo são levados em consideração e compensados. Desta maneira, é possível medir a dimensão e a excentricidade das peças geradas pela operação imediatamente anterior, com uma precisão suficiente. Este sistema pode ajudar na redução do nível de refugo e do tempo total de e produção, criando um diferencial para o aumento da confiabilidade do processo e da automação. / Most of the industries today use their machine operators to make the Workpiece dimensional verification. For this task they generally chose samples, doing manual inspection, or use automatic measuring devices in a whole lot. These procedures can implies in loss of time, a high investment, what may raise the costs of the final product. This work proposes a new methodology for in-process workpiece gagging, using a grinding machine associated with intelligent functions. The technology of an incremental rotational optical encoder and an external counter chip are used to perform the wheel head position monitoring. Using a NC (Numerical Control) coordinate system associated with AE (Acoustic Emission) inspection it was possible to get the position of the grinding wheel from the start of the grinding cycle until the first contact with the workpiece. The errors associated with the grinding machine deformation and wheel wear are considered and compensated. Thus, it is possible to measure the dimension and the run out of the workpiece, generated by a previous operation, with enough precision. This system may help to reduce the scrap leveI and the overall production time, creating a differential for process reliability and automation.

by Lo, Chi Ho Chester. / Title also in Chinese characters. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1994. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 159-163). / Acknowledgements --- p.i / Abstract --- p.ii / Table of Contents --- p.iv / List of Figures --- p.vii / List of Tables --- p.xii / Chapter Chapter One --- Introduction --- p.1 / Chapter Chapter Two --- Domain Theory --- p.8 / Chapter 2.1 --- Energies in Magnetic Domain Structure --- p.8 / Chapter 2.2 --- Domains in Iron and Nickel --- p.13 / Chapter 2.3 --- Magnetization Process --- p.15 / Chapter 2.4 --- Effect of Applied Stress --- p.19 / Chapter Chapter Three --- Magnetoacoustic Emission --- p.25 / Chapter 3.1 --- Models of MAE --- p.25 / Chapter 3.1.1 --- Discontinuous Wall Motion --- p.25 / Chapter 3.1.2 --- Displacement Model --- p.28 / Chapter 3.1.3 --- DW Creation and Annihilation --- p.30 / Chapter 3.1.4 --- Combined Model of MAE --- p.31 / Chapter 3.2 --- MAE and Magnetic Induction --- p.34 / Chapter 3.2.1 --- Eddy Current Shielding --- p.34 / Chapter 3.2.2 --- Magnetic Reluctance Calculation --- p.35 / Chapter Chapter Four --- Experiments / Chapter 4.1 --- Instrumentation --- p.40 / Chapter 4.1.1 --- Introduction --- p.40 / Chapter 4.1.2 --- Basic Setup --- p.41 / Chapter 4.1.3 --- Arrangement for Stress Measurement --- p.46 / Chapter 4.1.4 --- Specimen Preparation --- p.43 / Chapter 4.2 --- Methodology / Chapter 4.2.1 --- The Fundamental Study of MAE --- p.53 / Chapter 4.2.1.1 --- Effects of Demagnetizing and Stray Fields on MAE --- p.53 / Chapter 4.2.1.2 --- Dependence of MAE on Frequency of Applied Field --- p.55 / Chapter 4.2.1.3 --- Dependence of MAE on Specimen Thickness and Width --- p.55 / Chapter 4.2.2 --- Stress Measurement --- p.58 / Chapter 4.2.2.1 --- Effect of Uniaxial Stress on MAE --- p.58 / Chapter 4.2.2.2 --- Effect of Biaxial Stresses on MAE --- p.58 / Chapter 4.2.3 --- Defect Detection --- p.60 / Chapter 4.2.3.1 --- Nickel --- p.60 / Chapter 4.2.3.2 --- Mild Steel --- p.61 / Chapter Chapter Five --- Results and Discussion / Chapter 5.1 --- Effects of Demagnetizing and Stray Fields on MAE --- p.63 / Chapter 5.1.1 --- MAE Profiles --- p.63 / Chapter 5.1.2 --- Magnetic Reluctance Calculation --- p.68 / Chapter 5.1.3 --- Effect of Annealing --- p.74 / Chapter 5.1.3.1 --- Experimental Results --- p.74 / Chapter 5.1.3.2 --- Discussion --- p.77 / Chapter 5.1.3.3 --- Magnetic Reluctance Calculation --- p.78 / Chapter 5.2 --- Dependence of MAE on Frequency of Applied Field --- p.83 / Chapter 5.2.1 --- Experimental Results --- p.83 / Chapter 5.2.2 --- Theoretical Consideration --- p.88 / Chapter 5.3 --- Dependence of MAE on Specimen Thickness and Width --- p.96 / Chapter 5.3.1 --- Experimental Results --- p.96 / Chapter 5.3.2 --- Theoretical Consideration --- p.99 / Chapter 5.4 --- Effects of Uniaxial and Biaxial Stresses on MAE --- p.107 / Chapter 5.4.1 --- Effect of Uniaxial Stress --- p.107 / Chapter 5.4.1.1 --- Experimental Results --- p.107 / Chapter 5.4.1.2 --- Discussion --- p.116 / Chapter 5.4.2 --- Effect of Biaxial Stresses --- p.120 / Chapter 5.4.2.1 --- Study on Mild Steel Specimen --- p.120 / Chapter 5.4.2.2 --- Study on Nickel Specimen --- p.132 / Chapter 5.5 --- Defect Detection by MAE --- p.137 / Chapter 5.5.1 --- Study on Nickel Specimen --- p.137 / Chapter 5.5.1.1 --- Experimental Results --- p.137 / Chapter 5.5.1.2 --- Discussion --- p.140 / Chapter 5.5.2 --- Study on Mild Steel Specimen --- p.142 / Chapter 5.5.2.1 --- Experimental Results --- p.142 / Chapter 5.5.2.2 --- Discussion --- p.151 / Chapter Chapter Six --- Conclusions and Suggestions for Further Studies --- p.153 / References --- p.159